Association between attributing smoking to genetic causes and successful smoking cessation

Objective To examine whether attributing smoking to genetic causes is associated with successful smoking cessation.Methods A community-based case-control study was conducted with 642 adult successful smoking quitters as the cases and 700 adult failed quitters as the controls.Logistic regression was used to examine the effect of attributing smoking to genetic causes on successful smoking cessation.Linear regression was performed to explore the impact of attributing smoking to genetic causes on the perceived control over smoking and nicotine dependence.Results After adjusting the potential confounders as age,education,and marital status,attributing smoking to genetic cause had significantly negative effect on the successful smoking cessation(odds ratio=0.642,95%confidence interval:0.479-0.859).Smokers who viewed heredity as the cause of their smoking had significantly lower level of perceived control over their smoking and higher level of nicotine dependence than those who did not,with the adjusted mean and its standard error of 2.592±0.022 vs.3.052±0.049 and 3.447±0.080 vs.2.168±0.174,respectively(all P<0.001).Conclusion Attributing smoking to genetic causes is a risk factor for successful smoking cessation and perceived control over smoking,and an enhancing factor for nicotine dependence and needs to be concerned in future smoking cessation interventions.